Albinoni did not limit himself to writing operas, however. During the same period he was also intensely involved in writing chamber cantatas, some of which were published in 1702 as his opus 4, which included twelve Cantate da camera a voce sola. Between this date and 1715 he would compose almost 40 cantatas, all written for a soprano or alto with basso continuo.

Despite this intensive musical activity, Albinoni continued to pursue both industrial and artistic pursuits. Although he never officially launched his professional musical career, a step in that direction seems to have been taken in 1705, when Albinoni’s father specified in his will that his two younger sons would inherit the family business, bequeathing to Tomaso a simple portion of the profits and excluding him from all further participation in the business. In 1708, when the Venetian corporation of painters and printers requested that Tomaso pay a subscription fee he owed as a maestro, his father replied that his son had officially withdrawn from the family business. The dilettante had become an artist. In 1705 his career as a musician was symbolically sealed when he wedded the Veronese soprano Margherita Raimondi, known as “La Salarina”. The future Signora Albinoni, then aged 20, had begun her career on stage six years previously, appearing at the Teatro Vendramin in Venice as well as in operas by Draghi and Ziani. After giving birth to seven children she returned to the stage in 1714 as Margherita Riamondi Albinoni, then as Margherita Albinoni, a choice that may have reflected her husband’s growing renown. She sang across Northern Italy and in Munich alongside illustrious virtuosi such as Senesino and Vittoria Tesi, and appeared at least once in a work by Albinoni, performing the role of Elmidia in I rivali generosi in Brescia in 1725. Her death at the age of 37 brought an abrupt end to her career.

In 1709, the year of his father’s death, Albinoni officially gave up the title of dilettante. He never sought to acquire professional musical status, however, and would always remain an atypical figure, existing on the fringes of Venetian musical life. Unlike his illustrious colleagues Vivaldi, Gasparini, Lotti and Porta, he would never hold an official position in a Venetian institution, although his name was -unsuccessfully - put forward in 1743, along with that of Porpora, for the position of maestro di coro at the Ospedale dei Derelitti. Nor did he ever become a member of a professional corporation such as l’Arte de’ Sonadori to which Vivaldi and his father belonged. It was thus impossible for him to make public appearances, something that was of extreme importance for an independent musician. The financially strong position he enjoyed as a young man allowed him to place himself at some distance from musical officialdom, and to fashion himself as an independent composer. He was able to live on his guaranteed income (until the rapid decline and subsequent liquidation of his family’s business in 1721), on what he earned by selling his works, and on his engagements as an opera composer.

Albinoni continued to write instrumental works in this unconventional context, publishing six new opus numbers between 1707 and 1735. From opus 6 on, his compositions were brought out by Roger, the famous Amsterdam publisher, gaining him a solid reputation across Europe. Bach became aware of his compositions and transcribed several of the opus 1 concertos. In the early 1720s, Albinoni’s fame in Germany had attained such heights, in fact, that an impostor was able to travel around the country posing as Albinoni and selling scores he claimed to have written. (Modern musicologists have shown that these works, many of which are now kept in collections in Northern European countries, are apocryphal.) Albinoni’s success in England was no less remarkable. His compositions (published by Walsh) were so enthusiastically greeted that fifty years later, in 1789, Charles Burney would mention their fine reputation in his General History of Music.

Albinoni’s opera production also continued apace, and his works were regularly performed on the Venetian stage and throughout Italy. His opera catalogue, like that of Vivaldi, raises certain controversies. Uncertainties stem from the loss of source material, the difficulty of distinguishing between new productions and revivals, and the predilection of composers and chroniclers for exaggerating and boasting. The anonymous author of a “Dissertation critique” published in the Mercure de France in December 1731, for example, reports a conversation with Albinoni during which the composer claimed to have written over two hundred operas, each of which was penned in less than a month! Whether or not the quote is apocryphal, it is not entirely removed from reality: the libretto for Albinoni’s penultimate drama per musica, Candalide (1734), mentions that it was the composer’s eightieth work, and Albinoni himself also officially claimed to have written around eighty operas. Michael Talbot’s scrupulous tally includes at least fifty-three operas composed between 1694 and 1741 and identifiable through librettos, scores and independently published arias; his list excludes a significant number of revivals.